Screams
by Irk Splee
Summary: Mike begs Mal for a taste of the outside world. He wasn't prepared for the taste he received.


**Contains minor spoilers for the preview for episode 7.**

* * *

Time passed strangely inside his head.

Mike had no idea how long he'd spent chained to this rock. He'd willingly guess days, but it was difficult to tell when he had no physical indicators from the outside world. No matter how long he sat here, he never felt any hunger nor exhaustion. He supposed that made sense when he'd lost all contact with his body and its needs. Mal was probably taking care of those for him.

All he could do was sit and think about his situation. The last thing he remembered was dropping that rock in the hopes of bringing back his familiar alters, or at the very least, silencing the one that had Zoey so uneasy. Then he woke up chained here.

Other than an occasional visit from Mal so that he could vaguely brag about what was going on outside, nothing changed since then.

He'd say the isolation drove him insane, but the fact that he sat like this in his own head in the first place only indicated that he'd long since reached that point already.

"Zoey?" he called into the void. "Duncan? Sierra? Cameron? Can anyone hear me?" It didn't work. It never worked. He didn't even know if the people he attempted to call were still on the island – indeed, if _he _remained on the island.

But he still had to try. Even if Mal would inevitably remind him how futile his calls were.

"Manitoba?" he tried again. "Vito? Ches-"

His shouts were interrupted by the telltale whoosh and series of whistled notes that announced Mal's appearance. He peered out at Mike from his mirror, a somewhat irritated expression on his face.

"Would you _please_ be quiet?" Mal asked. "The constant yelling is getting old. It's not like anyone can hear you anyway."

"YOU!" Mike shouted and lunged at Mal, but the chain on his leg stopped him as usual and sent him tumbling to the ground. The metal shackle dug into his ankle and attempted to separate his leg from its socket, but he kept pulling, desperately trying to reach Mal so that he could... Mike didn't know what his plan was. He'd figure it out when he reached.

"You're still trying that, too?" Mal said. "You really don't know when to quit."

"When I get my hands on you-"

"What could you possibly do to me from there, Mike? Though if you'd like to tear off your own foot to get to me, then please. Be my guest." Mal asked. Mike ceased his escape attempt and allowed the chain to fall slack.

"What's going on outside?" Mike asked. "What are you doing to everyone?"

"Everything I'd hoped to," Mal said simply. "Things are going just according to plan."

"What _is _your plan? What do you want out of all this?"

Mal gave no response. However, Mal's secrecy failed to bother Mike for too long. A much more important question instead appeared in his mind.

"Where is Zoey?" Mike asked. "What are you doing to her?"

Mal gave a quick laugh. "Ha! I wondered if you'd ever ask about her!" He crouched down to meet Mike on an eye-to-eye level. "I'll tell you what. You've been so patient, sitting here all this time. I think you've earned a taste of the outside world. What do you think?" He began his whistling again as his image faded from the mirror.

"Get back here!" Mike called out. "What are you doing?! Hello?! MAL!"

After his last word finished echoing, an unsettling silence enveloped Mike's surroundings. He prepared to yell again and break that silence, but before he could, a high-pitched, feminine scream did the job for him.

Mike shot up to his feet like a bullet and looked around wildly. He'd recognize that scream anywhere... but no, it couldn't-

"MIKE!"

Zoey's distressed voice rang in Mike's ears. He'd never heard such a pure, primal terror in her voice before.

"MIKE! STOP!"

And that terror was aimed at him.

"ZOEY!" he called back. "Zoey, please! That's not me!" He grabbed the chain with both hands and attempted to yank it away from the rock as she continued shouting.

"HELP ME!"

Mike had no idea if he truly heard Zoey's voice or if this was a trick from Mal, but he had no time to consider whether it may have been the latter.

After realizing that tearing the chain in two wasn't going to work, he began slamming his fists against the boulder that held him captive. "Hold on!" he shouted as he attempted to shatter pure stone with his bare hands. "Zoey, please hold on! I'll be right there, he won't hurt you anymore, I won't let him-"

One final, wordless scream later, her voice faded away, returning Mike's prison to its eerie silence.

"ZOEY?!" Calling for her held no use. Just as quickly as her voice had appeared, it had vanished again, leaving Mike alone.

"No..." He dropped down to his knees, letting his fists drag down the jagged edges of the boulder and scrape against his knuckles. "No, no, no..."

That blasted melody rang out through the room once more. Mike turned to see Mal sneering at him from his usual place.

"What did you DO?!" Mike choked out, too stunned to lash out as he normally did when Mal appeared before him.

"Caused a little chaos, of course," Mal responded as he absentmindedly examined his fingernails. "After all, it's what I'm best at." He lowered his hand to clasp them behind his back and grinned again. "I just came to tell you one last thing... it seems Zoey trusts the 'juvie reject' more than she trusts you now."

"WHAT?!"

Mal's image snapped out of existence once more as Mike screamed, demanding explanations for everything he'd just heard.

Explanations never came.

Instead, all he could do was lean back against the rock and wait for the silence of his isolation to consume him once more.

The only sound he heard for a while after that was the sound of his quiet, fearful sobs as his heart broke.


End file.
